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| Industrial production and new urban area projects have been squeezing into the land areas which were initially reserved for aquatic farming, forcing farmers to leave empty-handed |
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Leaving ponds because of the pollution
Two aquatic farming enterprises in Do Son and Kien Thuy districts in Hai Phong City have left a large area of land idle since 2008, because they cannot continue farming once the water gets polluted. Farmers have given up the ponds; therefore, they do not have materials to provide to the enterprises. As a result, the enterprises usually have to borrow money from banks to maintain production. However, as the loans are limited, the enterprises have been regularly late in paying salaries to workers.
Hoang Dinh My, Deputy Director of the Do Son Aquaculture Enterprise, said that in the past, there were about 700 hectares of aquaculture areas along the Pham Van Dong Road. Meanwhile, the area has dropped dramatically to 300 hectares.
Both Kien Thuy and Do Son have reported that now only 60 percent of households are still farming, but just at a moderate level, because the irrigation system that serves the aquaculture has been damaged by industrial projects, while the environment has become seriously polluted.
In 2009, workers of the enterprises discovered a factory in the Do So Industrial Zone discharging dirty waste water directly to the environment, which cased to death of a lot of fish, and reported to the local authorities. However, nothing has been changed since then. The farmers in the brackish water aquaculture areas in Hai An district have also experienced continued crop failure over the last few years. It is because the aquatic ponds are located among industrial projects; therefore, the waster has become seriously polluted, while the irrigation system and infrastructure works have been demanded.
The areas which in the part were the natural ponds and lakes and served the aquaculture have become the lakes of residential quarters and industrial zones. As a result, a lot of households in Dinh Vu and Trang Cat have to give up farming, even though they still have not required to give back land to serve the project implementation.
The freshwater aquaculture areas in Tien Lang, Kien Thuy and Thuy Nguyen districts now regularly see fishes dieing in masses over the last two years, which has been blamed on the environment pollution. Meanwhile, serious diseases have been reported regularly from Cat Hai district, where there are 588 aquatic cages.
Stay or leave?
Five big scale projects on aquatic farming under the industrial mode have been left half done, while the initial results are not satisfactory. It seems that big aquaculture areas are facing the same situation.
Pham Van Nghe, a worker from the Do Son Aquaculture Enterprise, said that fishes die in masses in every farming crop due to the waste water from the Do Son Industrial Zone and the Do Son golf course. “I carried out the aquaculture on the area of three hectares of ponds in 2005 for the enterprise. The achievements were very encouraging in the first years of farming. However, several years later, when the industrial zone arose, I have continuously witnessed failed crops.
Chair of the Lap Le Commune People’s Committee, Nguyen Van Chien, said that there are 300 hectares of freshwater ponds on which aquatic varities are being farmed by 100 households. However, since 2009, fishes have died in masses, which has raised big worries among farmers.
Local residents now do not know what they should do. They cannot leave for other localities, because they do not have money to settle in other places, but they cannot earn their living in the home land any more.
D.V
(MONRE)